Re: Potential article correction

> MS users are pretty much permanently on the lookout for alternatives...

If this is true it's a new thing. I was always baffled by the fact that Windows users would not even remotely consider alternatives, regardless of the sometimes horrible things a have witnessed happening to them.

Just one: new expensive laptop "bricked" (according to user) with an update, with two month of purchase. Solution: buy another laptop, give bricked one to relative who uses that weird "Linux" stuff.

OK, one more: new version does not have driver for some (again, quite expensive) piece of periphery. Solution: bin it and buy one with recent driver.

Go Linux Mint

Seriously. It's not for nerds, it was incredibly simple to install and just worked first time. Brought an old laptop back to new which had been crippled by Windows. So simple to pick up and use my non-IT daughter loves it.

Re: Repair

Re: Repair

Speaking from experience, more pain than money. Bring back Vista, all is forgiven! Seriously, I've been advising and helping my clients to avoid both Windows 8 and 10 since they came out, but it's getting harder. So is fixing Windows when it breaks.

Incidentally the thing that puts most of my clients off is not the telemetry or updates, but the idea/reality of learning a new UI/modus operandi. The fact that 8/10 are such badly designed retrograde UIs, just makes "stick with what you know" an easier sell.

This all points towards a can of worms for testing purposes. It won't be long before the only sensible place to run 'Windows 10' (multiple versions) is under VMware on a LTS Linux install.

Its like raspberry ripple ice cream, where you can vagely see 'Windows 10' in the ripple, the more you stir it, the less visible the wording gets, with a taste that is less than creamy, to a point you wonder what flavour your eating.

Microsoft, get drastic, this needs serious reorgansation, pull the head of Marketing for a start - useless, beyond belief.

You need core code / latest bell and whistles, like Red Hat / Fedora release cycles. Stop combining the two, like raspberry ripple, admit you can't make an updatable on the fly, 'rolling release' combo of these two type of products (before its too late).

Re: These days it looks like marketing are actually doing the coding and testing as well

Microsoft, get drastic, this needs serious reorgansation, pull the head of Marketing for a start - useless, beyond belief.

You need core code / latest bell and whistles, like Red Hat / Fedora release cycles. Stop combining the two, like raspberry ripple, admit you can't make an updatable on the fly, 'rolling release' combo of these two type of products (before its too late).

I wouldn't bother with recommending any changes to unearth some improvement at Microsoft. As far as I can tell, that ship has sailed about a decade ago. Nowadays it's merely hanging on for the end, occasionally interrupted by some deckchair rearranging.

"And Redmond wonders why people are leaving its products for open-source alternatives"

yep because opensource never has any issues, what with a myriad of different flavours and versions and about a million updates released every month, ermmm opppsss wait what I meant to say was, errmmmm feck it.

Re: Windows 7 Update Hell

As Paul Daniels (magician) might have once said:

"Its helps a little, not a lot'.

You need to be a bloody magician, to have the patience and the ability to install all of Windows 7's Post SP1 updates successfully. MS have well and truely borked Windows 7SP1 for the home/small biz user.

You might just do it from a fresh install of Windows SP1 by updating Windows Update first, you won't if you use system restore image of the system/hard drive, it just won't update, well not in any timeframe that someone with a job and children to feed, can work to.

Re: Windows 7 Update Hell

I found this out a couple of weeks ago after leaving a new install searching for updates for 4 hours. It took me a couple more hours to find a solution because frankly the internet in general and search engines in particular are virtually completely broken these days. Any search returns many commercial results but almost no informed knowledge. Don't you just love default AND searches <sigh>

Anyway after installing these it identified the required updates in around 10 minutes and then took around 1-2 hours to download them.

"MS users are pretty much permanently on the lookout for alternatives to either fix things MS has borked, return functionality MS has removed in the name of "improvement" (especially in matters UI) or add functionality that MS cannot be bothered with"

I had no idea you'd been spying on my typical day. Although as I am still (and staying!) on Win 8, I guess you could actually spy on me with a webcam since it won't be randomly broken.

Re: Win 10 weekly russian roulett

well you could try out linux from a live DVD or Live USB or install VirtualBox for your virtual machine needs, maybe VMware still have some free solutions, but I'm not sure. VMware offerings stopped making sense to me a long time ago.

New measure of MS disillusionment : Paul Thurrott's face.

When Paul Thurrott looked dejected and thoroughly pissed off this week, having reinstalled Windows Aniversary Update umpteen times, trying to solving the freezing Logitech C920 issue at 1080p in Skype, you know things are looking bad for Microsoft.

As Microsoft reporters go, he's like a stick of rock with Microsoft through it, in terms of his loyalty to MS. (Same with Mary Jo Foley).

He's in effect the equivalent of the Alcoholic in Denial, regards Microsoft's competence. He did the same with Windows Phone, tried to loyally "big it up", right to the end, until everyone else could see its non-existent future, except him.

Mary Jo Foley is still talking about the vapourware 7'' 'Surface Phone', as though it will save MS's mobile division (but in the same breath, says she won't be ditching new Android phone)

Given the flakiness (dying on its last legs) of Windows 10 Mobile, it will probably do more harm to the Surface Pro range of laptops, than help anything in the MS mobile division. (which given the Battery issues on the Surface Pro 3, and the firmware issues on the Surfacebook-hot bag syndrome), best not to tie anymore bad news to the Surface range.

It was just starting to recover, only to be tripped up again by the battery issue. It just highlights the inherent problem of sealed battery devices, including iPads - limited 'sealed' lifespan.

Just put us all out of our misery, MSFT...

Re: Just put us all out of our misery, MSFT...

I'm a Unix guy, but in fairness to Powershell - It's way more than just a shell. I needed to test SSH connectivity from a locked-down Windows server to some Linux/Unix boxes, and Powershell has a utility to do that (proving to me that some connections were blocked by a firewall).

Re: Seriously if you installed windows 10, is this your first visit to The Reg?

Or perhaps IT professionals, despite being personally sure of the likely quality and problems associated with Wx are still impelled to install it at least once to ensure their impression is accurate or even more likely they may have to support it or develop to it?

I have never wanted to use windows, but my employers always said I had to.

Microsoft has lost their damn minds...

I have Win10 on a laptop I got last year and it has been a horrible nightmare... The only thing I have use for is the better audio and video...

Everything else sucks... The UI is an acid trip designed by a drunk Photoshopper... I just got the Anniv update and it's even worse... All the Windows look like popups.... Having no edges makes it hard to over lap windows... Ths icons are 3rd grade pencil drawings... Especially in the SysTray...

Modern apps totally blow chunks.. I tried WinZip and IHeartRadio... Ewwww... First they get rid of Silverlight rather than trying to remove the NPAPI parts and KEPT FLASH... They they take WPF and screw it up with UWP while there is no difference between a laptop and desktop and buying Nokia destroyed the phone OS...